Foodie. Feminist. Wanderluster.

My Pumpkin and Me: Ten Tips

The start of my afternoon off on Thursday began optimistically. Aaron and I headed to Tesco and I felt rather festive. It took everything in me not to purchase every packet of trick or treat sweetie bags but instead focus on my pumpkin-picking. I am only a recent lover of Halloween; having begun to really adore it for the first time last year. I wanted to go pumpkin-picking this year but that pesky time thing got in the way. All the same, I was excited and childishly picked the biggest and most round pumpkin of them all from the supermarket. Aaron, the wiser one of the two of us, apparently, sensibly chose a small looking pumpkin. I felt a little twang of jealousy (it was adorable) but I stuck to my guns and cradled my impressive pumpkin. And so my afternoon of foolishness began.

After a brief ridiculously long photoshoot with my pumpkin, the carving began. Before I write to you my legitimate five pumpkin-carving tips, I wish to share with you the list I jotted down on my phone as I continually messed up my pumpkin-carving. So here are five tips for those of you who suck at pumpkin-carving too:

Just don’t do it.

If you really have to do it, don’t think you’re destined to be the next rising star in the pumpkin-carving world and choose the largest one there. Go small. Always go small.

Carve the thing at someone else’s house. Messy, smelly things.

Preferably take part in the Halloween activity with a child. This way, when your pumpkin looks as terrible as mine did (see below- the one on the right), you can blame it on the child.

Ban all pets from your pumpkin-carving workshop. Not only do they find the orange fruit a little disturbing, you’ll spend your whole time ensuring they don’t eat any of it.

Jokes aside, I did really enjoy the pumpkin-carving. So much so I secretly want to do another one before they’re off the shelves for another year. So here are five more tips:

Search for pumpkin designs before you begin. Yes, like me, you’ll maybe feel a twinge of sadness that you’ll never be capable of swirly eyes and an intricate nose, but you can mix and match lots of funky designs and have yourself the cutest pumpkin in the world… like Aaron’s!

Use a pencil to draw your design on your pumpkin first. It’s easy to get rid of when pencil marks remain post-carving.

I highly recommend using your every day steak knife for carving. They feel far safer to use than alternative carving tools and do the job incredibly well.

Once you’ve popped the head of your pumpkin off, I find a sharp-edged spoon or a wooden spoon and a pair of scissors to be more than sufficient when it comes to spooning out the insides of your new pal.

Use the insides of your pumpkin after your carving session. There are plenty of fabulous recipes online that you’ll be spoilt for choice.

After two years of pumpkin-carving, Aaron and I are drawing 1-1. So despite creating a rather silly looking Patrick the Pumpkin, I’ll be back. Next year I will be stepping up my pumpkin game, picking a smaller orange friend and spending more time on the actual carving rather than the spooning out of the insides because LARGE PUMPKINS MEAN STUPID AMOUNTS OF ORANGE GOO.